Embraced By The Light July 31, 2010

After dying in the hospital following an operation, Betty travels to heaven, meets Jesus, and feels spectacular.

Then, the “powers that be” tell her it isn’t her time to die. Not inclined to leave heaven to return to earth, she begs to stay.

In order to persuade her to go back, they show her an overview of her life which reveals why she was born . . . and what she still needs to accomplish to complete her work on earth.

After seeing her life story, she reluctantly agrees to return to earth to complete her mission.

After being revived in the hospital, she remembers everything about the experience . . . except her purpose for being here in the first place.

That part has been erased.

Why?

Our purpose is to discover our purpose and pursue it with passion.

* * * * *

A fellow writer once recounted a dream. In the dream, he had completed a novel he’d been struggling with for years.

Just as he started to read what he had written, he woke up.

Dismayed that he couldn’t remember the subject matter of the completed novel, he shared the dream with others, including me:

Perhaps the dream was not intended to reveal what you are supposed to write about. Maybe the dream was only intended to motivate you to keep writing . . . revealing that one day you would complete the book if you wrote without getting distracted.

The Universe is full of mystery and magic which reveals itself on a need-to-know basis . . . one moment at a time.

I don’t know whether you will consider this relevant or not: but there is a very good book by the philosopher William James, (American Pragmatist) called ‘The Variety of Religious Experience’. In it he shows the individual context and spiritual (what?- feeling) experience that make the enlightenment/life after death experience so interesting. He concludes that these experiences are related uniquely to the dreamer/individual’s spiritual (what?) readiness, and also reflect the life experiences of the individual having the experience.
Not satisfied with this book, recently another author wrote a book which has been published. It imitates in a fashion, William James’ analysis/research into the psyche. It is called ‘Varieties of Scientific Experience’, (the moment of inspiration for theories, perhaps) and of course it was written by a scientist. I have yet to read the latter……Somehow I don’t think it could be ‘half as interesting’, as the enlightening experiences about ones personal life/psyche, although both types of experience could be called, I believe, Creative.

Reminds me of one of my favorite stories. The story goes that a famous playwright (I believe it was George Kaufman) was struggling very hard with writing his next play (or screenplay – not sure which – he did both). One night he had an incredible dream. He dreamed the entire p[ay he should write – plot, lines, scenery, costumes, and all the perfect casting. Since he always had a pad of paper by his bed, he told himself to wake up and write it all down. He did. He went back to sleep, secure in the knowledge that he had his next play all done, and he was so relaxed, happy, and peaceful at last, that he even managed to sleep late through the morning! When he awoke, he quickly got dressed, and ran downstairs with his play to get to his office and his typewriter, so he could get it all in mnanuscript form.

He sat down, inserted a new piece of paper into his typewriter, with carbon paper, and then opened his note pad. Looking down to read it, he saw only two words: “Write play!” Makes me laugh and cry at the same time! But I know that he went on to write some great screenplays and plays, so I guess he took his own advice!